NJPW star Rocky Romero recently appeared on Wrestling Observer Live to hype this evening’s Resurgence in Long Beach, an event that will crown the first-ever NJPW STRONG Women’s Champion.
During the interview, Romero explained why now was the best time to launch the NJPW STRONG women’s division since Mercedes Moné just dropped the IWGP Women’s Championship in Japan.
You know, since New Japan STRONG started, there’s always been a plan for a women’s division. So, when we stopped taping STRONG and doing the taping style shows, it was like, well when are we going to pull the trigger? And with Mercedes (Moné) coming up short and losing the IWGP Women’s Championship, it was like, well, now would be probably a great time.
Romero then breaks down the four women who will be competing in the one-night tournament.
So, definitely want to have participation from all our different partners so obviously, Stephanie Vaquer who Mercedes is wrestling in the first round from CMLL, who’s an amazing talent. People don’t really know her in the States yet, but I think after this match with Mercedes, she’ll definitely be a name that people will be looking out for. Having Momo Kohgo, who’s a young upstart in STARDOM. Not too much experience but, recently her work with Mercedes in STARDOM has been kind of noteworthy and they’ve kind of taken a liking to each other it seems like so, I thought it’d be a great opportunity to also have some new blood in there, and finally, yeah, Willow Nightingale, she’s a star in ROH, she’s a star in AEW. Another wrestler that, you know, obviously this is a huge opportunity for her, a huge chance and yeah, we’ll see who ends up in the final.
He continues…
I think all four women bring something different to the table and it’s super, super exciting to see and I just saw a picture of the belt the other day and the belt looks really, really amazing so I think people are gonna really dig it.
The final card for NJPW Resurgence can be found here.
Romero’s full interview can be found below.(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)